


Beginnings

by minkmix



Category: Yoroiden Samurai Troopers | Ronin Warriors
Genre: They Are Kids, its how it goes, its how they met
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-19
Updated: 2018-08-19
Packaged: 2019-06-29 21:19:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,170
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15737538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/minkmix/pseuds/minkmix
Summary: How the Boys got Started. One my first stories.





	Beginnings

~Beginnings~

by Mink

 

"How.. how did you do that?" Ryo knew he was staring but he couldn't help it.

"Do what?" The blonde boy asked, looking around the ground for a suitable stone for skipping across the cool and mirror faced lake.

"You know.." Ryo sat down on a fallen log that trailed off into the water, his eyes going regretfully to his ripped jeans where he had hit the pavement. "That stuff you did to those jerks." The sight of his jeans suddenly made him want to cry, but he swallowed it. He wouldn't be able to get a new pair for a real long time, he only had two and his others were even worse.

"It was nothing really" The boy answered, flicking the flat stone he had chosen gracefully across the surface of the still lake.

Ryo started to laugh but stopped, his eyes blinking up at him. "Nothing?" He rubbed at his nose and noticed it was bleeding. "There were like three of them and you ..well..." His eyes flickered uncertainly down at the leave littered ground and then back up at the strange boy, who continued to search the lake's shore. "...You aren't all that big. I mean you ..you are pretty tall and everything...!" He added in a rush when he saw the boy's shoulders tense a little."...but you like completely flattened them!"

The blonde boy half smiled, a smooth sideways flick and the small stone skipped one-two-..six times before disappearing under the smooth surface. The sun glimpsed and sparkled at them through the trees, the air was warm and good. "You had worn them out a bit" The pale boy said, looking out at the lake.

Ryo could feel his eyebrows raise in wonderment. "Maybe, but I wish I could have done what you did. His gaze turned inward as he thought of the sun beating down on them all in the Center recreational yard. "It was almost like..." The boy was moving like a cat, striking and placing his body in the rhythm of practice and calm. "..it was like..." The very thought of it made every move Ryo made since, seem clumsy in comparison. "..like a dance."

The boy looked over at him for the first time as if he was actually interested in him, not just seeing him, but really listening. "You could learn.." His eyes were almost white, they were so blue. "You could learn to dance."

"Me?" This time he did laugh, if only a little. "My father once told me, a man could rage against the dying of the light, wish for the light to die or ...feed that flame with your own soul." He thought of the three older boys in the yard, his elbows sliding down to his knees, his hands clasped together. His voice almost a whisper. "I think I only have rage." Ryo's pensive eyes blinked up suddenly in surprise, his mouth opening and closing. "I ..I don't know why I just said that..." He was apologizing and embarrassed. " I didn't mean. .you know..." Looking up, he stopped shaking his head, the boy was looking at him with a penetrating, almost fascinated way, that made him look away.

"I was watching from the fence." The pale haired boy said.

Ryo's head jerked up at his voice, the soft sigh of the breeze hissed through the trees above and around them, a soft delicate ripple running slowly over the water. The boy had one foot up on a rock that jutted out of the cool lapping water, and his arms at his sides. The sunlight filtering through the trees cast the quiet place bright green. Long blonde hair blew unnoticed in his face, his clothes, he noticed not for the first time, were rather simple but well made. His soft voice continued.

"I waited until I knew you were going to be defeated." The blue eyes weighed him. "I thought maybe you might be able to take them. He shrugged. "But you were too unfocused, completely reckless." He appeared disgusted as he turned his attention back to the search of the smooth stones beneath him.

A hand tugging at the rip in his jeans, Ryo realized that the boy spoke like he had never been around anyone his own age before and silently, he decided that maybe he was a little older than he had previously believed. Thoughts turned to his own prior words and his cheeks flushed red with shame. "This place is beautiful." Ryo mumbled, wanting to distance himself from his confession of his father's dead words. "I didn't even know the woods went out this far." The window in his crowded room showed him just a brief sliver of woods but he never thought they extended any further than a mile.

Another flat stone was picked up and examined. "Yeah." Skidding and disappearing. "I come out here a lot." The boy shrugged a little. "When I want to be alone or something."

Ryo's eyes went up to the forest canopy, the sun shifting and shining above and through the leaves and branches overhead. It was easy to see why someone would escape here. His eyes went to the boy again, his tall body seating itself carefully on a rock near the water's edge. There was a grace to him he had never seen in a boy his age or maybe, when he stopped to think, that he had ever seen in any one. He remembered the strange confusion of that grace with the abject ruthlessness he saw him give, the slow, unhurried, but yet unexpected wrath in the sun drenched yard. It was strange what the mind chose to remember. A bird's song stilled by the yard's sudden silence. The look of surprise and then finally the fear. He would never remember any of their names but he knew their every detail, etched into his mind like a photograph.

"If you want...." The boy said and then paused, looking at anything but him. "I could teach you some moves." His crystal blue eyes met his dark ones. "I could teach you where to put that rage."

"My name is Ryo." The words fell out of his mouth.

The boy smiled at him, his beauty suddenly shifting from the uncanny to the unbearable. "Seiji." His smile deepened, his eyes brightening with it. " I guess it's nice to meet you."

 

v v v

 

Ryo followed the taller boy through the woods, no trail beneath them to show the way. He seemed to know his way well though, barely taking notice of the towering trees above them. Neither one of them had said anything since they had begun their walk. Glancing down at his watch, Ryo realized he had less than a hour to sneak back into the Center and make it to kitchen duty on time. He felt sad leaving this peaceful place but he was used to leaving comfort behind him.

The tall fence around the Center's yard finally emerged from the trees. The sun had gone down and stark gray walls of the Center stood silently, waiting for him to return, waiting to swallow him whole.

He easily climbed the fence, dropping down lightly on the other side. Turning, he met Seiji's gaze as he shifted where he stood on the other side.

Ryo cleared his throat. " I'd better go," He tried to smile. "They give me hell if I'm late for duty."

"What do they do to you in there?" Seiji asked, his eyes going behind him to the solid concrete structure, his arms crossing.

"It's not so bad." Whispered Ryo, his hands going up and holding on the chain link fence, looking at the dark woods beyond. "Were you serious? About teaching me some of that stuff?"

The boy nodded, the wind picking up a little and playing with his pale hair. "Of course I was." He appeared confused by the question.

Ryo broke into a smile, feeling for the first time in a long time, happy. "Great! I mean that's really cool, I can't leave here until after 4, like today." The smile died a bit. "If they catch me leaving I'll get in a lot of trouble"

He nodded again. "I'll meet you here tomorrow then." Seiji gave him a small smile and turned to leave, disappearing back into the dark woods as if he was never even there.

 

v v v

 

Ryo watched him go and then turned and ran to the side entrance around the back of the Center, squeezing between two dumpsters when two Center employees suddenly emerged from a metal side door. The match snapped and hissed and he listened to their weekend adventures, the smoke from their cigarettes drifting and floating around his face. It was ten minutes before they finally went back inside. Biting his lip, he slipped through the heavy doors , skidded around the corner opening the kitchen doors with a shoulder, ran by the giant sinks, and almost fell trying to stop himself from slipping on the just mopped floors. The last dinner shift was over, the other kids on duty looked up at him suspiciously as he rushed by, grabbing an apron from the wall and just as he tied it around his waist he flew through the inner door straight into the office.

"Hello." The man said, looking pointedly up at the old clock on the wall. "I thought you weren't going to show up, thought maybe you were too busy to join us this evening."

Ryo looked up at the clock. Two minutes late. "I've never been late be-"

"Shut up." He said coldly, standing up. "The dishwasher is broke. You just bought yourself 6 more hours."

Ryo glanced up at the clock again. That meant he wouldn't be done until 2 and he had to be up at 5. He sighed. "Yes sir." It didn't really matter though, and the usual empty feeling he had when he went to face the towering stacks of dishes and filthy floors, was replaced with a sort of calm contentment. He was going to see Seiji tomorrow and he was going to learn how to dance.

 

v v v

 

It seemed like his head had just hit the proverbial pillow when the morning bells went off, like a fire drill, the morning sky still dark outside the small window. They let the bells go for about five minutes, insuring that everyone was indeed wide awake before shutting the hellish clanging off.

Ryo slid off the top bunk of the bed he shared with a quiet boy who rarely smiled at anyone or anything. The small room had two other bunks like his, the sleepy boys grabbing their shower things in dazed routine, stretching and shivering in the cold early morning air.

A boy named Dasuke mustered a smile and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. "Kasuma put you on the night shift again Ryo?" He grinned at the other bunkmates. "What's he want you down there for all the time anyway?"

Ryo could barely get his eyes open. "Yeah. Was late." He managed, another yawn escaping him. Grabbing his towel and his clothes he pushed past them to get to the showers before all the hot water was gone.

Dasuke nudged his bunk mate. "He made a jail break yesterday, Mitsuo saw him climb the fence after dark."

His bunk mate raised his eye brows. "Some girl?"

"No." Dasuke answered, considering it. "Some blonde guy."

 

v v v

 

Ryo was tired but he felt strangely energized as the hands of his watch crept slowly to four o'clock. The three who had bothered him the day before hung back towards the building and away from the asphalt where they were playing soccer, sometimes turning and trying hard for him to notice their cold looks. He didn't care. His eyes kept going to the far bit of fence that was out of site from the Yard monitors, the bit closest to the woods. All night, as his hands and eyes burned from cleansers, and his knees ached from being on the floor, he thought about the sunlight shifting on the forest floor. The bright green open place, sharing air with other than your four walls. Sharing thoughts with something other than your ceiling late at night. Every bit of plaster stuck in your sight, the frustration so sharp your eyes sting, your thoughts too heavy to bear.

Shutting his eyes, he could fell the wind blow, see the smooth ripples that flowed across the water. It was peace he felt, knowing it was in his power to return to that small bit of freedom. He felt peace when he saw the cold glint in those blue eyes. The fence was only a few yards away. Peace, that close, could distract anyone, and looking over at it again, he missed a soccer ball that whizzed easily by his head. The collective disappointment of his team drew his attention back quickly enough however.

"Whas a matta with you today, Ryo?" A younger boy called, trotting up to him. "You know that the pool table is up for stakes...a whole week!"

"Gomen, I wasn't thinking." Even then, his eyes flickered to the fence and then back to his watch.

"Yeah, we've noticed" The boy said blandly, watching him. "What's the deal, you got a date or something?" Many used the unguarded bit of fence to rendezvous with a girl from the local high school or to do something a bit more drastic. An all out escape. He frown up at Ryo wondering if the latter wasn't what was on his goalie's mind, after all Ryo didn't talk about girls much. "Hey you ain't taking off for good are ya?"

Ryo looked down at him distracted. "What? No. I am just gonna be gone till last kitchen shift." He considered something then hastily added. "Don't worry, I don't think those guys will bother you again."

He gave him an easy grin. "Don't worry bout me, I mean geez, it was you they almost bashed to death"

Ryo smiled back. "Don't thank me. Thank Seiji"

"Huh?" A dirty hand went into his short black hair. A thought occurred to him. "That white kid you mean? That's his name?"

"Yep." Ryo said softly. "I have to go now, tell the others I'm sorry about the goal." And he had already taken off.

He watched him run over to the fence, glancing back automatically to the yard monitors, who were of course, watching nothing, involved in some discussion and taking heavy drags off their cigarettes. "Well I'll be damned." He murmured to himself as he watched Ryo easily clear the fence. There _was_ someone waiting for him. He could barely make out the figure, dim in the trees, before both of them disappeared into the cool green depths.

 

v v v

 

"If you don't start concentrating, I don't think you will ever be able to accomplish anything." His voice was sharp and curt. "I bet you haven't even tried those meditations I showed you." His eyes shifted towards him in challenge.

It had been several weeks and Ryo felt more uncoordinated than he had before he even began trying to fight like Seiji had. "I try. It's hard because I only have a few hours at night when it's quiet enough." He didn't mention the dreams that kept him from real sleep anyway. Even stronger now then they ever had been.

Seiji made a non-committal noise and shook his head. "Come at me again, but this time," He paused, brushing some hair out of his eyes,"... don't make it so easy for me to hit the ground with your face." His smile was a bit infuriating.

Ryo nodded, standing up, trying to remember everything he had told him, and everything he hadn't, but instead, had noticed himself. He looked up at Seiji standing ready. Again he was taken with the strange beauty he held. He wanted to ask about his heritage but there was also something about it that Seiji seemed to guard, and it made him afraid to pose the question. The light hair and eyes were things he had only seen in books, and he spoke like no one he had ever met. So serious and withdrawn. And his skin, white as milk. Maybe his mother or father were from Europe?

"Come on!" Was the impatient urge.

Ryo went. His arms and legs falling into the pattern that had been repeated and repeated to him for the past few weeks. But instead of feeling clumsy and odd he felt his flesh gain momentum and he knew suddenly how to gauge it. The move that Seiji had shown him flowed out of him like a well rehearsed poem, and before he knew he had done it, his hands met Seiji's body, and with the rush of sudden strength and power, his eyes closed, the vague sound of Seiji's body hitting the forest floor distant to him.

"I did it" He said in blank disbelief, his eyes blinking down at his hands. There was a power there he had never felt. "I actually did it."

Seiji groaned something angrily into the leaves and dirt his face was in.

Ryo looked over, his accomplishment turning into horror, releasing his tight hold on the power he felt stirring within him. "Seiji? ..." The lithe body was sprawled ungracefully almost fifteen feet away at the foot of an old gnarled oak tree. _Did he hit that tree?_ "Are.. are you okay? He asked, bewildered. How?

"I'm.. I'm fine." Seiji sat back slowly, letting himself up from the damp ground, his delicate features twisted in a scowl, a hand on the back of his head.

Did I do that? "I'm ..I'm sorry." Ryo stammered, confused and slightly afraid.

"Don't be sorry." Seiji said harshly. "You finally did it right." The white cheek was streaked with dirt, his hair full of dead leaves.

"Are you angry?" Ryo asked him in a small voice, he could see the resentment radiating off of him like heat. But how? How could he have just pushed him all that way like it was nothing? "I got the move?"

"That's just it!" Seiji suddenly shouted. "You shouldn't have gotten that. Not so soon!" His large eyes trembled, making him look very vulnerable suddenly.

"What... what do you mean?" Ryo whispered, stunned at his out burst, he had never heard him raise his voice before, or lose control of himself in any way.

"I could feel it. The first time I saw you." Seiji's voice had lowered but it now had a shakiness to it that was maybe worse.

"Feel what? Seiji, what do you mean?" Ryo stepped towards him, but Seiji stumbled back as if he didn't want to be near him.

"That move took my father almost his entire life to master" He hissed. "It's a combination of the culmination of several martial arts." Seiji's eyes burned at him. "I watched my father practice this move in secret, and I saw how could destroy his opponent in one move." He sounded ashamed. "I started practicing the move too."

Ryo could only stare at him and wait for him to continue. What does he mean?

" I had mastered it in under a month, only a week longer than it took you. But there was something more when I had mastered it." His hands made shaky fists on either side of him.

"Something more? Seiji, please, I don't understand!" Ryo pleaded, beginning to feel a bit hysterical himself.

"Only one month of mastering what took my father a lifetime to achieve, and I ..I .." He clenched his fist in front of his face, "...I shattered a boulder! With my bare fist! I surpassed what it took the lifetime of skills to acquire!" Watery crystal blue eyes blinked furiously at him. "Do you understand!? Don't you see?!"

Ryo let this information sink in, his eyes looking down at his hands. Could this be true? Seiji's voice broke his thoughts, it's strength was gone, he sounded weak and tired, more like the boy he was supposed to be.

"Have you ever felt ..." Seiji asked,"... different?" He slumped down into the leaves. "Have you ever felt like no one was like you?" Hopeful eyes looked up at him and Ryo was alarmed to see tears rolling down his dirty face.

The words hit home though. "Yes." He answered sitting down in the leaves next to him. "I guess I have." In so many different ways and in so many different places, which could Seiji mean?

"I don't mean because you have no parents." Seiji suddenly explained, sitting forward. "Lots of kids don't have those. I mean, have there been other things..?" He dragged the back of his ivory hand across his face smearing dirt across his cheek, sniffling a little. "Like dreams?"

Dreams? Ryo thought, slowly turning cold, his bright blue eyes narrowing grimly.

"You have." Seiji whispered, knowing just by looking at him, the tremor returning to his voice.

"If I tell you something.." Ryo began. "Will you swear never to tell anyone?" He watched Seiji nod and swear to the childhood code of honor, knowing that it was good enough. "I.....I.. sometimes have this dream that I am on fire. But maybe...", he paused, trying to explain what he barely understood himself. ".. I'm not on fire...maybe it's more like..."

Ryo didn't want to look up at him for fear that he may smile or worse, even laugh. ".......like I am the fire. But it doesn't hurt, it ..it's home. I'm always alone but at the same time there are others near me, I can hear them through the flames, I can hear them talking to me." The words came out in a rush, his eyes squeezing shut. "I can hear them getting louder and louder until the fire turns white and then I feel... I can feel.. " He stopped looking up. "I feel death."

Seiji was staring at him strangely, his eyes locked on him, his face wet with tears. "The others...what do they say to you?""

He shrugged, suddenly feeling very tired. "I don't know. I can never really make it out, although," he added thoughtfully, "..the dreams have gotten much clearer ever since I started those meditations you showed me. Instead of voices I see places. Like a cloudy place or the ocean during a really big storm." His drawn face turned to Seiji's. "You have them too?"

He was nodding, wiping back the steady flow of hot tears, angry at them. "I have dreams that the darkness is trying to choke me." He was confessing a heavy secret, his scared eyes flickering back and forth on his. "I feel others too, I wither in an immense fire, I drown in white water, I see a comet burn the night sky and then a desert at sunset. What does this mean?"

A look of such dismay spread over Seiji's features, that Ryo reached up and clutched his cold hands in his own.

"I thought I was ..."Fresh tears ran down Seiji'd pale face. "...alone." He hitched a breath, overcome. "I thought I was ....," Seiji broke down in a harsh onslaught of tears, his arms going around Ryo's neck, burying his face in his long black hair.

Ryo's arms went around him without hesitation, holding on to him tighter than he had on anything he ever had in his life, trying to squeeze the pain out of him. He was barely aware of himself murmuring over and over.

"We will never be alone again."

 

v v v

 

Seiji's eyes met the horizon with an unfriendly look. It was well after sunset and it was well after the time Ryo was supposed to meet him. Even now, only a few kids straggled behind on the yard, kicking around an old soccer ball or throwing a tattered baseball back and forth under dim sodium lights clinging from atop metal posts. Frowning, his eyes went to the tall concrete walls, Ryo had never been this late before and he knew without question something was wrong. He shifted behind the clump of trees he was crouched behind, glancing up at the rising moon, the months were growing cooler and it was easy to feel the sun slipping away the winter waiting for it to die completely.

An uneasy sigh escaped him when a loud bell began clanging deep inside the building, like a rumbling beast, making all the remaining kids turn towards the Center and reluctantly walk to it. The Center was shutting down for the night.

"Hey?" Some one said.

Seiji almost jumped but somehow managed to defeat the impulse, already sliding backwards into the safety and dark of the woods.

"Please wait!" The voice came again. It was some kid, up against the fence.

Seiji recognized him almost immediately. It was that boy child that Ryo tried to protect that day so long ago. The day Seiji had intervened. He paused, interested in what this child had to say.

"He's not coming." The child said softly, his voice was sad.

Seiji came forward, enough that the boy could see him in the dead light. "Where is he?" His voice was calm.

"That asshole Dasuke." He had actually started to cry, dragging the back of his arm over his eyes. "Ryo was a good kid ya know."

"Dasuke?" Seiji prompted, wishing this kid would break down some other time and tell him what he needed to know.

"He's one of his room mates," He explained through his tears, "... he ratted on him. About jumping the fence everyday." He sobbed. "He got extra TV time for telling."

Seiji felt his eyebrows draw together, his senses igniting. "Tell me where he is."

"I have to go..." The boy said looking back uncertainly at the retreating figures of the other kids, one by one disappearing back into the building.

"Tell me ." Seiji hissed, his hands gripping the fence links.

The boy blinked up at him warily. "They stuck him in the Box." He mumbled. "They're gonna ship him to the Municipal Divisional Center.. in.. in the morning." Then he was running off, swiping his nose with his sleeve as he ran.

Box. Seiji remembered Ryo mentioning the place. It was kept on the west side of the Center's grounds. Slipping over the fence and landing in a crouch on the packed dirt on the other side, he was glad he had chosen to wear dark clothes that night. 

 

v v v

 

The Box was a squat metal square that lay rather far from the main building, almost half in the woods that met the fence. He mused that it may at one point have been used by the grounds keepers, until the Center found that using it's own residents to trim the yellow grass and shovel the snow, was much cheaper. At some point, someone noticed that the solid metal building had another purpose. It was now used for particularly problem Center guests, more specifically, the violent ones or the uncontrollable. Ryo had told him he knew only one kid that had been isolated in it and it was for biting a counselor and then smashing him with a folding chair.

He frown as he drew nearer, the thing was barely four feet high and maybe five feet wide. It had a small wooden roof, holding on to it's former life of keeping yard equipment and the like. Pausing a few feet from it, he spied the only visible opening, a two inch slit near the top of the roof that went down the length of the small building.

"Ryo?" He whispered, feeling like he was alone in the dark. There was no answer. "Ryo?" He was right up along side the rusted metal wall, on the wooded side to hide himself from the main building's view.

There was a small noise, like a scraping on the metal floor within and then a weak sound.

"Ryo?" Seiji, tried to look down into the shed through the small slit, but it was pitch darkness inside. The weak voice came again, but it was a bit louder, the sound echoing off the confining metal walls.

"I knew you would come...Œ He said, all in one breath. "Knew you would find me." 

"I found you." Seiji said, he could just barely make out Ryo's form slumped on the floor of the shed, his eyes shifting to the hefty door. "Now, I am going to get you out."

"No." Ryo wheezed.

Seiji froze, listening.

"It would have happened sooner or later." Ryo told him quietly. "I just didn't care."

Seiji could hear Ryo laughing softly to himself, his pale hands tightening on the rusted metal edge of the air slit. "They've hurt you. You don't know what you're saying." He tried to shake the bulky walls and found them immovable.

"Seiji," Ryo continued, as if he couldn't hear him. "They are moving me tomorrow, I'm going to Tokyo."

Seiji felt his eyes burn. "You don't have too. You can stay here."

He was laughing again. "No, I can't stay here anymore. I feel it in my dreams, there's something waiting for me there." He paused,"...what you've found here, I can hear it calling me, pulling me ."

Seiji understood, but was silent, wishing he could run away from this place. He didn't want to hear any of this.

"Seiji?" Ryo asked, a slightly fearful pitch to his voice.

"Yes Ryo, I'm here." He whispered.

"Oh...I thought maybe you had left..." Ryo breathed, and Seiji could hear the relief in his voice.

"I know you have to go. I can feel it too." Seiji stated, hot tears sliding down his face, glad that the dark and a wall hid them from him.

"Yes." Ryo said so quietly, that Seiji was unsure if he had even heard it. Will you stay with me a while? At least until morning?" He asked softly from within the small metal shack.

Seiji slid down the cold wall, seating himself in the wild grass that grew around the edges, sharp steel rivets digging unnoticed into his back. "I'll stay with you Ryo." Choking back anymore tears that threatened to take what composure he had left., the night sky spiraling over him, the promise of dawn too soon. A coldness hardened around him, layer by layer it settled, turning him numb.

Ryo's weak voice reached him. "I'm not too sad Seiji."

"Why is that?" The metal walls were so thick between them.

"Because I know I'll see you again." He answered.

Seiji said nothing, watching the night stars fade when the sky stained pink and the sun rose slowly from beyond the hills.

"You and the others." Ryo whispered as softly as the cold dew that soaked the ground with coming sun. "I'll see you all."

the end


End file.
